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Gambling online one of the key decisions that
face all online casinos slot players is whether
or not to play just one coin/credit, or more than
one coins/credits before pulling the handle or
hitting the spin button. Many online casino slots
players believe it doesn’t make a difference
how many coins you play whereas others believe
you should always play maximum coins. Who is right?
Let’s see.
There
are to be sure many different types of slot machines
on the casino floor. And new ones are being introduced
at a record pace. But even though each slot machine
looks and sounds different, when everything is
said and done you can group slot machines into
7 different categories.
The
first category is the tried and true straight
multiplier slot machine. An example is a Double
Diamond machine. On these machines exactly the
number of coins played multiplies the payoff for
a winning combination. If you glance down the
paytable for a two coin play (second column) you
will see that every payoff for the winning symbols
is twice the payoff for a single coin play (first
column).
On
these machines playing more than one coin per
spin is a waste of your bankroll because the average
return of the machine does not change with the
number of coins played. You’ll expose less
money per spin to the house edge if you play only
one coin per spin vs. two or more coins. Therefore
there is no mathematical advantage for playing
more than one coin and it’s best to play
only one coin on straight multiplier machines.
A
second category of machines is the bonus multiplier.
On these machines you receive a bonus payoff for
playing maximum coins. In other words the payoff
for the top jackpot is more than a straight multiple
of the one coin payoff. An example is the popular
three coin Red White & Blue slot machine.
If you hit a red, white and blue 7’s the
payoff for one coin is 2400 coins , for two coins
it’s 4800 coins (double) and 10,000 coins
for three coins played. Notice that the three
coin payoff is 2800 coins more than the expected
triple (7200 coins) payoff. The bonus payoff encourages
players to play max coin.
Most
gambling authors recommend that you should always
play max coins on a bonus multiplier machine to
be eligible for the bonus payoff. However, my
friend John Robison, who is author of the excellent
book, Slot Expert’s Guide to Playing Slots
disagrees. John has analyzed the slot manufacture’s
payoff combinations and hold percentages (PC sheets)
for different machines and concludes that the
gain for playing max coins is not enough to warrant
playing two additional coins. He gives this example
in his book. The return on a single coin play
for the Red White 7 Blue machine is 91.757%. The
return for playing max or three coins with the
bonus payoff is 92.47%. The difference in the
two return percentages is 0.713% not enough to
warrant playing the two additional coins unless
you cut back on the number of spins. The latter
is an important point, which requires some explanation.
Look
at the results of these three different playing
scenarios on the above Red White & Blue machine
(assume dollar denomination).
If
you play 1000 spins at one coin per spin (91.757%
return) your expected loss is $82.43
If
you play 1000 spins at three coins per spin (92.47%
return) your expected loss is $225.90.
If
you play 365 spins at three coins per spin (92.47%
return) your expected loss is $82.45.
Look
at the three expected losses above. The only way
it makes sense to play max coins in a bonus multiplier
machine is to cut bank on the number of spins
(i.e. playing time) compared to a single coin
play. If you are not willing to do this then you
should only play a single coin.
The
third category of slots is the buy-a-pay. The
two-coin Sizzling Sevens is an example of this
type of machine. On these machines you activate
additional winning combinations only if you play
max coins. For example, the one coin pay schedule
for the Sizzling Sevens machine will show the
payoffs for the winning combinations. The second
column shows the additional winning combinations
that you can buy if you play the second coin.
It is important that you play always play max
coins on these machines because usually the payback
is low for one coin pay and higher for a two coin
play. it can also get very frustrating if you
play one coin, hit three 7’s but win nothing
because you didn’t activate the three 7’s
winning combination. Always play max coins on
these machines!!
The
next category is the progressives. Here the top
jackpot is not fixed; it increases as more slots
players play the machine. The most well known
progressive in online gambling is Megabucks where
the machines in a specific area (like all Mississippi
casinos) are linked (these machines are known
as wide-area progressives). There also progressive
online slot machines that are linked in all the
properties of one casino (in-house progressive)
and the so-called stand-alone progressives which
are not linked to any other machines. Regardless
of the type of progressive you should always play
max coins to be eligible for the top jackpot (which
is often very large).
Australian
video slot machines are the new hit these days.
You’ll often find these multi-coin, multi-line
machines that often take up to 90 coins per spin.
It’s best to play at least one coin per
line to activate all the paylines.
Multi-line
machines offer the player the chance to buy more
pay lines. (e.g., five line Double Diamond machine).
Whether you want to do so is a personal choice
because buying more pay lines will not significantly
increase your overall return. However most players
hate to see winning combinations appear on a payline
that they haven’t activated. So from that
standpoint it’s best to play max coins in
these machines (i.e. activate all pay lines).
Some
machines are part multiplier and part buy-a-pay.
For example the three coin Blazing Sevens is a
buy-a-pay for the first two coins played and a
multiplier for the third coin. In general you
should play max coins on these machines or at
least the number of coins to buy all the winning
combinations. Sometimes these machines have a
bonus round (e.g. Wheel-of-Fortune). In this case
you should always play max coins.
Knowing
the type of online slot machine you are playing
will help you determine how many coins you should
play.
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